1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an underwater, pyramidal, lobster or crab trap that is collapsible, light in weight and easily assembled into its operative shape to catch lobsters or crabs. The trap has a triangular base panel and three triangular side panels hingedly attached to their respective sides of the base panel. The side panels meet at their apexes to form the trap. There are truncated cone shaped net sleeves that serve as entrances to further entrap the catch.
2. Description of the Related Art
The older, more traditional traps were made of wood and became heavy and hard to handle after being in the water over a period of time. Rocks were often thrown into the box to act as ballast. Bait was placed in the box to encourage the catch the enter the box. Divers were often required to dive to the traps to retrieve the catch and rebait the box. The catch was often difficult to remove from the box and many times caused the diver emotional trauma or physical injury. The traps were not collapsible and were not easily stored on the deck or in the bow of a boat.
The size of the trap did not allow a commercial trapper to carry many traps aboard the boat. Since the number of traps placed is often directly proportional to the quantity of the catch, increasing the number of traps carried and set is a much sought after goal. The wooden traps were also subject to extensive damage by sudden storms and tidal shifts and often were covered by underwater vermin such as barnacles.
Collapsible traps were introduced but often had complicated mechanisms to keep the sections together and to provide a lobster or crab ingress to the trap and to provide access to the catch by the trapper. The complicated mechanisms were often made inoperable by corrosion or damage.
One of the most troublesome problems encountered in some areas is that the rectangular configuration of the older design traps made it difficult to extract them from those areas containing kelp or seaweed. Those old, heavy and cumbersome traps often get tangled in these aquatic plants and getting those traps to and from the surface is very difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,728,645 to F. P. Ward, et al. on Sept. 17, 1929 shows a rectangular base and sides, with a roof. It is a metal mesh lobster trap having a plurality of swinging metal doors to allow undersize lobsters to escape. The trap has a hinged entrance door and a plurality of securing mechanisms to hold the device together.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,785,348 to J. Holobek on Dec. 16, 1930 describes a wire mesh cage having a rectangular base and sides and two triangular ends. The sides are spring-loaded to be biased away from the base to which they hinge. The ends are rigidly held in an upright position and have a crossbar to which the tops of the side are secured. A latch mechanism holds the two sides together to form the assembled trap.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,173 to S. F. Sylvester on Apr. 12, 1966 shows a one-piece plastic lobster pot having a plurality of holes therein. The pot has a rectangular base and an arcuate roof. The trap is formed and held in shape by a plurality of hooks and a long pin inserted through a plurality of knuckles. A preformed converging entrance is provided. The arcuate roof is two-part and is bent open at the parting place to provide access to the catch.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,064 to R. T. Lane on Sept. 10, 1974 describes a collapsible shell fish trap with a rectangular base and sides having resilient finger latch or trigger which provides a disengaging means to quickly collapse the sides of the trap. One of the sides has a inwardly hinged trap door with a float attached to provide an entrance to the trap.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,496 to A. J. Leone on Mar. 31, 1981 shows a one-piece, molded, plastic, lobster trap with a converging guide path having a trap door. The trap door leads to two converging nets to further entrap the lobster. There are a plurality of access doors with slide keepers to maintain them in a closed position. The base is rectangular and there are rectangular side and an arcuate roof. The base, sides and the roof have a plurality of holes therein.